The stocks of companies engaged in robotics, system chips, cloud, and all-solid-state batteries businesses have gained ground after investments by South Korea’s top Samsung Electronics Co. and its affiliates.

Samsung Electronics disclosed Thursday that it acquired an additional stake in Rainbow Robotics Co., a Kosdaq-listed company that specializes in collaborate robots. It bought 913,936 common shares of Rainbow Robotics over the counter for 27.8 billion won ($21.2 million), or 30,400 won per share. The move upped Samsung Electronics’ stake in the company to 15 percent from 10.2 percent.

The investment led shares of Rainbow Robotics to hit the ceiling on Thursday, closing 30 percent higher at 112,300 won. Shares of Rainbow Robotics also soared 226 percent this year upon news that Samsung Electronics will buy a 10.2 percent stake in the company for 59 billion won in January. Its market cap, which stood at 500 billion won early this year, rose to 1 trillion won in just 15 days and to 2 trillion won in two months to become the 13th-largest stock on the secondary Kosdaq market.

Rainbow Robotics isn’t alone.

Other robotics stocks have surged sharply as Samsung Electronics carries out efforts to boost its robotics business.

Han Jong-hee, vice chairman and head of the device eXperience (DX) division at Samsung Electronics, said during a shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday that the company will focus on “artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robots, and metaverse as our future growth engines.”

“We have various plans for the robotics business, such as launching a wearable walking assistance robot.”

On Wednesday, shares of Konan Technology Inc. rose 12.3 percent from the previous session, Robotis 4.7 percent, and Hulim ROBOT Co. 5.4 percent. These are small companies with just tens of billions of won in revenues but shares rose more than 50 percent from earlier on in the year. Shares of Konan Technology have surged a whopping 326 percent.

System chip materials, parts, and equipment stocks are also on a rise.

Shares of Wonik IPS Co. gained 6.7 percent on Wednesday, DB HiTek Co. 4 percent, HANMI Semiconductor Co. 3.8 percent, and SFA Semicon Co. 17.1 percent. The surge was led by an announcement by Samsung Electronics on the previous day that it will invest 300 trillion won to build the world’s largest chip cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Shares of Emro Inc., a procurement supply chain management company that Samsung SDS Co. acquired on Wednesday, also hit the ceiling for two straight days.

Samsung SDS disclosed that it has become the largest shareholder of Emro following the acquisition of a 33.4 percent stake for 111.8 billion won. Samsung SDS plans to expand its corporate cloud capacity.

Samsung SDI Co., in the meantime, is focusing on the development of next-generation all-solid-state batteries that enhance safety in electric vehicles.

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee recently made a visit to a business site of Samsung SDI in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and inspected the pilot production line of the batteries.

By Park Yoon-yea and Choi Jieun

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